At one of its plants in Centerline, Mich., Aetna Industries, . Inc., is manufacturing production parts for rear suspensions for the Oldsmobile Aurora, Buick Riviera and a new Cadillac Seville. In order to produce these components for General Motors, Aetna Industries installed 15 six-axis IRB 1400 robots from ABB Flexible Automation, Inc., Fort Collins, Colo. The plant is building about 200,000 rear suspensions per year or 40 systems during each 8-hr shift. Plant Manager Andy Kozan was responsible for planning the production schedule for the robots. Knowing the complexity of the system, he allowed six months from installation until the first scheduled run of production parts. The demand for these systems is expected to increase shortly, and, when that occurs, Aetna In-dustries is expected to purchase 10 more IRB 1400 robots.
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